Grain car door



Dec. 26, 1961 T. J. FuLLERToN GRAIN CAR DOOR Filed Oct. 25, 1956 l in a direction as before.

United States Patent This invention relates to an improved railway car door structure and particularly to an improved temporary door used to cover the inside area of a railway car door opening for purposes of retaining grain or other small size particles within the car.

In my co-pending application entitled Grain Car Door, Serial No. 279,302, tiled January 3, 1955, now issued as U.S. Patent No. 2,871,937 on February 3, 1959, I have shown an improved grain door composed of a resilient or yielding flexible sheet backing over relatively rigid horizontal members resting against the car posts and provided with veritcal flexible strap members fastened between upper and lower beams which transcend the door opening in the vicinity of the upper and lower door margins. Though this door has proved very effective in use, some difficulty has been encountered because the beams, to which the strap members and sheet are fastened between the upper and lower door margins, have loosened under certain extreme loading lconditions. It has been found that the straps and the sheet, which are both fastened to and wrapped aroundk the beams in the same direction, provide a rotational force tending to rotate the beams and loosen them from the door frame when the door is subject to a grain load. lt is the principal object of this invention to overcome this problem by providing an improved door construction which resists loosening of the beams transcending the doorway. This object is achieved by reversing the direction of the fold of the flexible strap members around the beams at the upper and lower door margins, while leaving the sheet folded at its ends With this arrangement, the load of grain or other material loaded in the freight car and pressing against the inside sheet surface causes the sheet, which is furthest out from the door frame, to pull on these upper and lower beams and provide a torque or Vcouple which tends to rotate them off the door frame. With the strap ends folded onto these beams where fastened in `a folded direction opposite to that of the sheet, the straps apply a torque or couple opposite to that applied by the sheet under load with the result that the rotational force caused by the Vsheet tending to rotate the beams off the door frame is effectively balanced out by `a rotational force acting in the opposite direction to thereby prevent the beams from twisting olf as before.

Other details, objects and advantages of the invention will be understood from a description of a preferred embodiment thereof which is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which,

FIGURE 1 shows a perspective ViewI of the grain door positioned across a car door opening;

FIG. 2 shows a sectional view Vof the door shown in FIG. 1 as viewed along the line 2 2; Y

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of `an end portion of a support beam used in the grain door shown in FIGS. 1 and 2; and

, FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of acut away portion ofthe paper used as a backing sheet for Vthe grain door of FIG. l. Y Y

A preferred embodiment of a grain retaining door ern'- bodyinggthe principles of this inventionY is shown posi- 4Ationed tojcover ancpening 1 which is the .doorway of a railway car 2.Y This opening isbonnded at its lower portion by the floor3 of the car and at its lateral margins by two car posts 4 and 5 which'are all securely fastened integrally of the car. The upper margin of the 3,014,526 Patented Dec. 26, 1961 opening lis not shown, but it ordinarily consists of a wall section or beam joining together the upper ends of the two car posts 4 and 5. The preferred embodiment of the temporary grain door 6 of this invention comprises an upper board 7, two intermediate support beams 8 and 9, a lower board 10, four straps 11, 12, 13 and 14, two batten boards 15 and 16 and a flexible sheet cover 17. The upper ends 11a, 12a, 13a and 14a of the straps 11, 12, 13 and 14 are passed around to frst'contact the outer surface l7a, the upper edge `7b and then the inner surface '7c of the board 7 and staple'd in place thereto with staples 3). These straps are spaced parallel to and approximately equidistant from each other and extend vertically downward to where their lower ends 11b, 12b, 13b and 14b are wrapped around the four faces of the board 10 and stapled thereto. Similarly these lower ends are wrapped in a direction rst to contact the outer surface 10a, the lower edge 10b and then the inner surface 10c of the board 10. The extreme ends of the straps contact the upper edge 10d of the board 10, but this is only for convenience so that the nails fastening the board 10 to the floor 3 can also fasten the strap ends to the board 10. Staples 36 are also used to fasten the strap ends to the board 10. However, other fasteners such as nails could just as well be used to fasten all of the strap ends to the boards 7 and 1t). The flexible sheet 17 is composed of resilent material which is capable of a small amount of stretching and, as especially shown in FIG. 4, may be composed of a back layer 17a of loosely knit burlap, a middle layer 17b of adhesive material such as asphalt which is preferably waterproof, and a top layer 17C which isa sheet of crinkled or creped paper. Even though the folds of the crinkles may be formed to run predominantly along parallel paths in one direction, the crinkling is preferably such that the paper can be stretched in all directions even though more in one than another. The burlap strands provide resilience and ripping andtensile strength to the sheet and, because the burlap strands on the under layer 17a are loosely woven, they can yield as the entire sheet 17 is stretched over its entirety.

Whenassembling the door, the upper margin of the rectangular shaped sheet 17 is folded around three lsurfaces of the board 7 in a direction opposite to the direction of the wrapping of the upper ends of the straps 11, 12, 13 and 14. This upper margin of the paper can be Vstapled in place to the board 7. The reverse folding of the ends of the straps relative to the upper margin of the sheet 17 is especially shown in FIG. 2. v With the strap ends 11u, 12a, 13a and 14a folded onto the beam 7 in a direction opposite to that of the upper end of the sheet 17, the straps apply a torque or couple opposite -to that applied by the sheet under load with the result that the rotational force caused by the sheet tending to rotate the beam 7 off the door frame in one direction is balanced out by a rotational force acting in the opposite direction to thereby prevent the beam 7 from twisting off. The reason theseV rotational forces are present is because, when subject to tension, thestraps 11, 12,V 13 and 14 load one sidel of the beam 7 eccentrically of its longitudinal axis to causela rotational force in one direction while the sheet 17 loads the opposite side of the beam 7 eccentrically of its Vlongitudinal axis to canse a rotational force in the opposite direction. Itis not actually necessary to wrap the strap ends 11a, 12a, 13a and 14a and the upper end of the sheet 17 around the lboard 7 to obtain this type of loading. `The strap ends The lower portion of the sheet 17 extends vertically downward and has a portion 17d which extends around the inner, the bottom and the outer surfaces of the board and connects to an end portion 17e which reversely folds back beneath the portion 17d and extends for a distance horizontally inward of the door. The lower ends 11b, 12b, 13b and 14b of the straps are wrapped around the `board 10 in a direction opposite to the wrap of the lower margin 17d of the sheet 17. This arrangement is especially shown in FIG. 2 and has the same advantage as lthe arrangement o-f the strap ends and sheet margin wrapped around the board 7 at the upper end of the door. The portion o-f the door consisting of the two boards '7 and 10, the straps 11, 12, 13 and 14 and the sheet 17 is secured across the doorway 1 by nailing the ends of the board 7 with horizontally placed nails 18 to opposite car posts 4 and 5 and the bottom board 10 to the car iloor 3 by means of vertically placed nails 19. The nails 18 pass through two layers of the sheet 17 as well as the board 7 while some of the nails 19 pass through the lower ends of the straps 11, 12, 13 and 14 as well as the board 10 and the two portions 17d and 17e of the sheet, while still other nails 19 pass only through the board 10 and the two sheet portions 17d and 17e. After this portion of the dor is in place, the sheet portion 17e, extending inwardly of the doorway, is nailed to the car lloor 3 by means of nails 20. Also, batten strips and 16 are nailed along the marginal edges of the sheet 17 by means of nails 21. The particular folding arrangement of the sheet 17 around the board 10 as well as the battens 15 and 16 provide grain -tightness around marginal po-rtions of the doorway. Another advantage of this folding arrangement of the sheet portions 17 around the board 10 is the clamping action of the board 10 against the sheet por-tions 17d and 17e. 1n addition to this, there is another advantage of better holding of the lower strap ends which are wrapped laround four sides of this board 10. The board 10 also can be used by a worker to apply `a crowbar against it to pry open the outside car wea-ther door without ripping the sheet and causing a grain leak.

Before the door portion just mentioned is positioned across the car doorway, the principal load bearing members 8 and 9 which are preferably square cross-sectioned tubular metal pieces having flattened ends 21, as best shown in FlG. 3, are bridged between and fastened to the car posts 4 and 5 by means of nails 22 which pass through nail holes 23 provided in these flattened ends 21. Only suilicient nailing to support these members 8 and 9 is required and, so, either one or two nails may be used on each end of these members. These members 8 and 9 are in no manner attached to the remainder of the door. The fact that these load members 8 and 9 are extremely rigid, but capable of some variable deflection under load and impact, make them ideally suited for withstanding the bulk of the grain load wi-thin the car. To eliminate lateral pull of the door posts 4 and 5 by the members 8 and 9 while deecting, the nail holes 23 are made larger than the Shanks of the nails 22 to permit a small amount of sliding of the ends of the members 8 and 9 over the door posts 4 and 5.

The reason for providing a resilient sheet 17 as a grain barrier is to permit a pillowing or bulging condition, as shown by phantom lines 24 in FIG. 2, so that the load of the grain is transmitted from the sheet 17 to the load members 8 and 9. It has been found that when a rather inelastic sheet is used that the sheet either bursts or tears before the load is fully transmitted to the load members 8 and 9, especially under shock conditions obtained with a railway car in transit. The princip-al reasons for the vertical straps 11, 12, 13 and 14are, first of all, to carry some of the grain load, and, secondly, to held transmit this grain load from the sheet 17 to the load members 8 and 9. It has also been discovered that the use of a resilient sheet 17 minimizes the tendency for the boards 7 Iand 10 to be pulled from their fastenings to the car posts 4 and 5. It seems that in all cases the resilient sheet 17 absorbs energy during shock load conditions so that all of the members forming the door are never subjected to as severe sudden stresses as would occur if the sheet 17 is relatively inelastic. The crisscrossing of the vertical str-aps with the horizontal beams 8 and 9 has an additional advantage in that the sheet area is broken up into smaller sections such as the area bounded by straps 12 and 13 and beams 8 and 9. By breaking the larger sheet area into the smaller areas, the load is more evenly distributed to the members 8 and 9.

Because the load bearing members 8 and 9 are not fastened to the rest of the door, any relative shifting of these members with the sheet 17 will not cause ripping of the sheet, but, instead, slippage will occur between the parts.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but may embody various other constructions without departing from the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

l. A grain barrier for a doorway comprising an upper horizontal beam bridging the lateral margins of said doorway, vertical flexible straps fastened to the upper beam at their upper ends and at their lower ends to a lower beam bridging the lower margin of said doorway, a middle horizontal beam bridging said doorway between the upper beam and the lower beam, a flexible sheet fastened to the upper beam, the lower beam, and the side margins of saiddoorway, the sheet slidably resting against the middle horizontal beam, the upper end of the sheet being wrapped around the upper beam where fastened to it, the lower end of the sheet being wrapped around the lower beam where fastened to it, the straps where fastened at their ends around the upper and lower beams being wrapped in directions opposite to the `direction of wrapping of the upper and lower sheet ends.

2. A grain barrier for a doorway comprising an upper horizontal beam bridging the lateral margins of said doorway, vertical flexible straps fastened to the upper beam at their upper ends and at their lower ends to a lower beam bridging the lower margin of said doorway, a middle horizontal beam bridging said doorway between the upper beam and the lower beam, a flexible sheet fastened to the upper beam, the lower beam, and the side margins of said doorway, the upper end of the sheet being wrapped around the upper beam where fastened to it, the lower end of the sheet being wrapped around the lower beam where fastened to it, the straps being wrapped where fastened at their ends around the upper and lower beams in directions opposite to the direction of wrapping of the upper and lower sheet ends.

3. A grain barrier for a doorway comprising an upper horizontal beam bridging thelateral margins of said doorway, vertical flexible straps fastened to the upper beam at their upper ends and at their lower ends to a lower beam bridging the lower margin of said doorway, a middle horizontal beam bridging said doorway between the upper beam and the lower beam, a flexible sheet fastened to the upper beam, the lower beam, and the side margins of said doorway, the sheet slidably resting against the middle horizontal beam, the flexible straps extending from one side of the horizontal axes of the upper and lower beams and the sheet extending from the opposite side of the horizontal axes of the upper and lower beams so that the sheet and the straps respectively apply a force eccentrically of the longitudinal axis of each of the upper and lower beams on opposite sides of the axis to resist the rotational effect of the force'of each other on the beam when the straps and sheet are Asubject to tension.

4. A grain barrier for a car doorway comprising an upper beam and a lower beam, both bridging the doorway opening and fastened at their ends to the inside surface of the lateral margins of said doorway, a sheet bridging the space between said beams, the top and bottom ends of said sheet being wrapped around at least three surfaces of each of the beams, with the top and bottom end portions of the sheet immediate to its bridging portion being positioned against the inside beam surfaces facing the inside of the car, vertical flexible straps also bridging said space between said beams, the ends of said straps being wrapped around at least three surfaces of each of the beams, with the end portions of the straps immediate to their bridging portions being positioned against the outside beam surfaces facing the outside of the car, said sheet thereby urging the beams to rotate in one direction on their axes while the straps urge the beams to rotate in the opposite direction when the sheet and straps are subject to the pressure of a grain load applied against the sheet from within the car.

5. A grain barrier for a doorway comprising an upper.

horizontal beam and a lower horizontal beam, both bridging the doorway opening and fastened at their ends to the inside surface of the lateral margins of said doorway, a middle horizontal beam bridging said doorway opening between the upper and lower beams, Vertical flexible straps bridging the doorway opening and fastened to the upper beam at their upper ends and to the lower beam at their lower'ends, the ends of the straps immediate to their bridging portions being positioned against the outside beam surfaces facing the outside of the car, a i

flexible sheet bridging the space between and fastened to the upper beam at its upper end and to the lower beam at its lower end and the side margins of said doorway, the ends of the flexible sheet immediate to its bridging portion being positioned against the inside beam surfaces facing the inside of the car, said sheet thereby urging the beams to which it is fastened to rotate in one direction on their axes while the straps urge the same beams to rotate in the opposite direction when the sheet and straps are subject to the pressure of a grain load applied from within the car.

6. A grain barrier for a doorway comprising an upper horizontal beam bridging the lateral margins of said doorway, vertical flexible straps fastened to the upper beam at their upper ends and at their lower ends to a lower beam bridging the lower margin of said doorway, a flexible sheet fastened to the upper beam, the lower beam, and the side margins of said doorway, the iexible straps extending from one side of the horizontal axes of the upper and lower beams and the sheet extending from the opposite side of the horizontal axes of the upper and lower beams, so that the sheet and the straps respectively apply a force eccentrically of the longitudinal axis of each of the upper and lower beams on opposite sides of the axis to resist the rotational effect of the force of each other on the beam when the straps and sheet are subject to tension.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS 2,116,260 Corkran May 3, 1938 2,595,087 Leslie Apr. 29, 1952 2,599,443 Ford et al. June 3, 1952 2,646,117 Hodgins July 21, 1953 2,738,006 Suess Mar. 13, 1956 2,823,745 Hill Feb. 18, 1958 2,871,937 Fullerton Feb. 3, 1959 2,890,747 Murphy June 16, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 525,101 Great Britain Aug. 21, 1940 

